In the dim light of an underground space, a dozen completely groomed boys kneel in rows, calling out their names.
Muscular, with glossy boy-band hairdos, they cram side-by-side into the slim area, waiting for us to make our option. Outdoors in the corridor, more of their coworkers are showing up for another night at the workplace. It is 2am, and also we are their very first consumers.
Concealed underneath the sidewalks of Seoul's ritziest postcode, Gangnam, the guys at Bar 123 become part of a growing market, which expanded out of the long practices of Japanese geisha and Korea's kisaeng residences but with one crucial distinction - the clients below are all females.
Referred to as "host bars", these all-night alcohol consumption areas use female clients the chance to pay as well as pick for male buddies, often at a cost of countless extra pounds a night.
Among the females I satisfy at Bar 123 is Minkyoung, a waitressing manager for a five-star hotel. Once or two times a month, she claims she comes to host bars.
The allure of host bars can be subtle. Here, she claims, she has even more interest from her male buddies, more option as well as, crucially, more control.
PROMOTION
" In normal bars the individuals who consume alcohol with me have only one objective - to have an one-night stand. Yet I don't want that, to ensure that's why I come below, I want to have a good time," she claims.
Hosts are worked with by bars like this one to provide friendship and amusement. Formally that indicates putting drinks for their customers, dancing as well as chatting with them, as well as vocal singing karaoke.
Host bar in Seoul
Sex is not formally available in most host bars. That would be prohibited however also Minkyoung seems pleased to touch as well as tease with her host, as well as the males here approximate that around half the consumers intend to spend for sex, either on or off the facilities.
James has been operating at Bar 123 for a pair of years. In Korean society, he says, there is a great deal of satisfaction as well as working out a rate for sex is never ever done clearly. Rather, he informs me, it is all to the host's own evaluation.
" The individuals here are pros - we understand what we're doing," he says.
" After speaking with a lady for a hr we basically understand exactly how much money she makes and what she does for a living. We've already evaluated her personality and also what she wants to provide."
James and also various other hosts claim their consumers include a few of South Korea's elite, which the cash and also advantages available are astounding. One client James satisfied, during his first week in the job, asked him to authorize himself over to her for two years.
" She said 'allow's make a contract. I've obtained this item of paper and I've numbered it 1-5. Whatever you document next to those numbers, I'll obtain you.'".
James states at the time he took it as a joke but considering that discovered the very same female spent 60,000 ($ 97,000) on an additional host.
" If it took place currently, I 'd do it - Iwould certainly be believing straight.".
Paradoxically perhaps, host bars expanded out of among Korea's most entrenched and, some claim, misogynist company customs - the room hair salon. These are exclusive alcohol consumption areas where groups of guys select, as well as are served by, attractive women people hosting.
It was the people hosting' requirement to allow off steam after job, says expert host Kim Dong-hee, that produced the initial demand for host bars, with all-male staff.
" What these people hosting desire is to [make us] do the very same thing they had to do in their own work environment. These women are forced to do points they do not want to provide for cash.
" I assume a great deal of them are in pain, and also a lot really feel lonely. Basically, they want to purchase our time and our bodies.".
Hostesses still compose a big portion of the consumers at host bars here, but at Bar 123, for instance, approximately 40% of the consumers on a provided night are currently from other walks of life.
The factors for that expanding charm are locked up in South Korea's rapid economic rise. Within 50 years, the country moved from post-war destruction to OECD participant.
According to Jasper Kim, head of the Asia-Pacific Global Research Group in Seoul, something crucial was lost along the way.
" I believe that with all this rapid development comes rapid change, and also Koreans just do not know how to cope with it. Increasingly, commercialism is surpassing standard social norms that you would certainly expect a couple of decades back.".
Jasper Kim claims South Korea's infamously lengthy working hours have actually left several Korean women really feeling lonesome, while the country's technological development has left lots of people really feeling separated.
" The human element of Korean culture that existed before simply does not exist today. People are concentrated on innovation, people are focused on their tasks, they aren't concentrated on human relationships any longer.
" In numerous ways, Korean culture today sort of advises me of 1960s society in the United States, where it's on the brink of some sort of social transformation.".
The grandpa of Seoul's host bar scene, Kim Dong-hee, agrees that several of the females who come to host bars are not paying for sex but also for friendship, which is why he opened up a new chain of freshly-marketed electrical outlets focused on the mainstream market - called Red Model Bars.
Red Model Bar hosts.
Picture subtitle,.
Hosts at Red Model Bars can not touch customers.
" Men wish to have visual pleasure as well as wish to feel things, they're responsive. Women like to speak and also to pay attention. Which's why I assumed of opening up a bar similar to this - a type of discussion bar.".
Red Model Bars are different to typical host bars in one vital regard - there is a no-touching guideline. Hosts rest on one side of the table, customers on the various other, and also no physical call is permitted, as well as certainly no sex.
Perhaps as a result there is a lack of furtiveness among individuals that function or consume right here - the lights are reduced, the decoration mainly dark red and the space is separated right into very discreet booths, yet it is an open-plan area and also hosts as well as clients are separated in each cubicle by a big table.
This brand-new service design depends completely on females paying the equivalent of hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars to chat to fine-looking young men over a beverage. Still, it appears to be functioning - three new branches are due to open this year.
Resting at a table at one end of the bar was among their regular clients, a flower shop called Kim Nayu. She informs me she comes below every day to fulfill her favorite host and discuss problems she is contending job.
The rate for this piece of male focus is $487-650 ( 300-400) a day.
" Talking to buddies would be less costly" she admits, "yet they do not pay attention as much. They're hectic, and also quickly to discuss themselves. Here, people will pay interest to me and also they'll listen to me.".
" I spend a lot of money yet it's worth it for what I get psychologically. People pay to head to see a psychologist or psychiatrist, so it's similar but much less stressful.".
Nayu's favorite host Sung-il claims it can be hard to keep his specialist and also personal life different.
" Honestly Iwould certainly be existing if I say I have not been lured to take things additionally with some customers, because we're human, we're guys, but there are guidelines.".
One of his clients yapped to her other half concerning him as well as when the 3 of them satisfied, Sung-il and also the husband became close buddies.
" No one hides - the employees don't conceal that they work below, and also clients can be open too.".
This visibility is posturing a new type of obstacle to South Korean culture, various from the sometimes seedy underworld of traditional host bars and also their hinterland of male hooking.
By providing women a "commendable" means to challenge typical gender duties and also bend their economic power, these new bars ask concerns of Korean society that are coming to be harder to disregard.
Hear the full record on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents. You can pay attention via the Radio 4 website or through the Crossing Continents podcast.
The allure of host bars can be subtle. Below, she says, she has even more interest from her male companions, even more option and, most importantly, even more control.
James has been working at Bar 123 for a couple of years. Instead, he tells me, it is all down to the host's very own assessment.
As well as that's why I thought of opening up a bar like this - a kind of dialogue bar.".
